Cape Cornwall School - working towards life with no oil…

                                           

 Cape Cornwall School - working towards life with no oil…

 
Cape Cornwall School is making huge changes to not only become more environmentally friendly, but to be able to survive without oil - their aim is to become the first Transition School.
 
Cape Cornwall School is working in partnership with Plan-it Earth Environmental Education Project, Real Ideas Organisation (RiO), Cornwall Waste Action and Transition Penwith and is supported through funding from the Creative Partnerships Change School initiative, to become self-reliant. The organisations have been working closely with the school, by educating staff and students, offering advice and support, accessing resources and linking them with local organisations. 
 
Cape Cornwall School is already making changes to embrace being as sustainable as possible and in September all staff worked closely with Plan-it Earth enquiring into sustainability. Cape Cornwall School is currently:
 
  • Building a canopy (mini version of The Eden Project) which will be combined as a display space for both the students and the local community to use.
  • Aiming to erect a new building built on the principles of sustainability and perma-culture so students can experience and explore these methodologies first hand as an intrinsic part of their education.
  • Working towards a paperless student reporting system. The school intends to load reports onto the New Virtual Learning Environment where parents can access their son/daughters reports. 
Stuart Walker, Chair of Transition Penwith said "It is fantastic that Cape Cornwall has decided to become the first Transition School and is looking at how they can change the way they work to meet the twin challenges of Climate Change and oil depletion.  The students of Cape Cornwall School are our future and thanks to their foresight and initiative, their community will be well prepared to find more sustainable ways of living and working than we do today."   
 
Under RiO’s Outdoor and Environmental programme, facilitated by expert environmentalists from Plan-it Earth, Year 7 students will map the schools energy use and as a result decide where the school can adjust and adopt new techniques, to reduce their carbon foot print and reliance on fossil fuels. One major outcome of this project will be the creation of ‘Student Carbon Detectors’. 
 
The students will use the skills they have learned to carry out a community audit, by assessing local businesses. This will have a local impact, showing the community how they can bring sustainability into their everyday lives. 
 
The canteen staff have embraced this new Transition idea and have already began to source food locally. A garden will be built on the school grounds, to grow produce which will be used to make meals in the canteen. They currently recycle all they can and are moving towards increasing their composting capability. 
 
The canteen staff members are planning on providing a cheap and locally sourced ‘meals on wheels’ service and meals at the school for the older generation in the community to enjoy. They aim to build relationships between older and younger generations, putting the school at the heart of the community. 

  cape cornwall school 

 

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